Communication has always been a critical element of every successful organization. Those who communicate well succeed more often than those who communicate poorly. There are countless resources on the topic of communication; you can even spend years in college studying for a communication degree, but the topic is still one of the most difficult to master. This is due, in part, to the fact that everyone communicates differently. Taking time to think about communication can go a long way in our efforts to succeed as an organization.

Who should I be communicating to? Who should I expect and ask for communication from? How often should communication take place? What is the best medium of communication? Is feedback required or welcomed?

There are a number of studies that have been done on communication and of all the statistics on communication, the following is quite interesting.

"The more "in demand" a person is, and the more information they share, the less engaged they are . A third of the best information sharing resources are from only 3% to 5% of employees ." - polly.ai

This means that those who need to communicate are less likely to. Take a minute to watch the video below on Communication by Chris Croft. Then answer the following questions. Do I communicate with my team, suppliers and customers in the best way possible? Would I be better off creating a communication plan for some projects? Do I have a firm grasp on my current projects taking into account their timelines and required communication?

Communication

by Chris Croft

Communication text

One of the biggest people-related problems is communication. There are three main groups with which communication's important. The first group is your team. These are people who work for you on the project, or maybe they're just working with you. You're not actually in charge of them. The second group who you need to communicate with are your suppliers. Now these could be external suppliers, or possibly internal to your organization, maybe the IT department. Then the third group's your customers, which probably includes your boss. These are the people who need to keep happy. The communication problems you're likely to have with these groups are with the team, it's probably that they're not clear on their roles of who's doing what. Then maybe they don't always communicate enough between each other on their progress, the problems they're having, and whether the lateness of one person is affecting another person. With suppliers, the communication problem tends to be that they say they'll deliver parts of your project by certain dates, and then they change their minds later and let you down. With customers and bosses, the communication problems tend to be firstly that they push you into agreeing to the impossible at the start. Also there's a tendency to avoid these people during the project if things aren't going well, and that's not good. Now the answer to all of the above consists of just two things. The first one is a communications plan agreed with everyone at the start. This plan tells you who you're gonna communicate with, how often, and by what medium. So, for example, you might agree with some people you're gonna email them only if there's a problem. Maybe you'll have a weekly meeting or a daily phone call. Perhaps you'll write a monthly report, but you agree how this is gonna be done at the start. There's also the reverse of how often they will communicate with you on their progress and problems. So, for example, the IT department would have to tell you how they're getting on perhaps weekly. If you agree this plan at the start, then you can make sure that they tell you the things that you need to know, and also they can't complain later that you didn't inform them enough. Also it forces you to communicate frequently with your customers even if things are going badly. The other key communication technique is our old friend the Gantt chart. I did tell you that I love them. These are brilliant for showing the team what their individual contributions to the project need to be and how they all interlock. If one person's task goes late, how it will affect the next person. It's also a great way to get suppliers to commit to dates at the start because everyone can see and understand the Gantt chart. Even if they've had no project management training, they can understand what the Gantt chart is saying. They all sign up to it at the kickoff meeting confirmed by email afterwards. Finally, it's a great way to make sure that your boss or customer doesn't ask you to do the impossible because you can use it as an arguing tool to show that your project needs the time that it does. You can say look at how the tasks need the length that they do, and they can't be done in parallel. So it's a great arguing tool. Planning makes you stronger. So to sum up this section on communication, ask yourself for your existing projects, how are your communications with your team, your suppliers, and your customers? Have you got a communications plan agreed with them? Could you be using your Gantt chart more as a communication tool?

For more information about Gantt charts and a template and walk-through for setting one up in Excel, click here.

"There are three main groups with which communication's important. The first group is your team. The second group who you need to communicate with are your suppliers.Then the third group's your customers, which probably includes your boss."

"...ask yourself for your existing projects, how are your communications with your team, your suppliers, and your customers?"

Ethical Communication

by Brenda Bailey-Hughes

Ethical Communication text

Ethical questions surround communication. Is it ever okay to lie? Is a lie of omission still a lie? When you anticipate and report best case scenario, is that hopeful and therefore, ethical? Or is it exaggeration and unethical? Is strategic ambiguity, that's the practice of being intentionally vague to avoid responsibility. Is it unethical? Or is it just savvy business practice. How much information should you share to stay on the right side of the ethics line? What do you do when confidentiality and transparency clash? Answers may seem easy while these are just hypothetical questions. But when face real situations, the decisions can become challenging. As an example, what would you do if you were in Scott's shoes? Do you remember Scott? He's chairing the school committee which determines which students must move schools. Scott has received ugly voicemails on his phone. He's lost sleep getting ready for the public meetings. And now this, from his very best friend. - Hey, Scott. Sounds like your committee is narrowed to two options. They're both good options, but you know my son would be affected by one of those plans. And Scott, he's going to kill us to have to move him to a new school. You know the struggles he's had fitting in. And things are finally clicking for him. Man, I hate to put you in a bad spot. But please push for the option that won't mess us up. Would you do that? - The ethical questions flood poor Scott now. What should he say right now in the moment to his friend? Is it ethical to push for the option that helps his friend? Should he tell his committee about his conflict of interest? Is this a conflict of interest? And what about Carol? She found that one report that said webcams created legal problems one time in one hospital. Does she really have to include that one incident in her communication with the decision makers? Even when she had so many other examples of the webcams having great results. These are tough, right? And life can hit you with a thousand more. What do you do when one of your employees is about to be laid off? But your management team has asked you to keep the information confidential. Does it change your mind if that employee is about to make an offer on a new house? What do you do when your team wants to massage the language to make your product sound less risky or more reliable than it actually is? Is it unethical to fan the flames of the rumor mill when negative but false information about a competitor is spreading. With so many ethical dilemmas possible, how can you make good choices? Let me share just a couple of tips. First, remember that a positive communication climate requires credibility and openness. So, use these two pillars when you face communication ethics questions. Secondly, think ahead of the types of ethics situations you're likely to face. Take a moment now to brainstorm at least five or ten ethically questionable communication situations you could encounter. Researchers at Northwestern University discovered that people are less likely to lie if they have a conversation about their ethical decision first. This is true even if the truth meant the people get paid less during an experiment. Preemptive thought and conversation helps us stand our moral ground. So, take some time now to consider how you will communicate if faced with any of these ethical situations you brainstormed. Keep these important ethical considerations in mind. Especially if your organization is ever faced with a crisis. We'll explore crisis communication next.

"How much information should you share to stay on the right side of the ethics line?"

"What do you do when confidentiality and transparency clash?"

"First, remember that a positive communication climate requires credibility and openness."

"Secondly, think ahead of the types of ethics situations you're likely to face."

Responsible Communication

by DuPont

Responsible Communication

When it comes to the way we communicate, there is definitely a Right way and a Wrong way. The Right way involves forethought and discretion. The Wrong way is blind to consequences and cares little what is shared. We ought not be sharing everything we know with whoever happens to be listening to us. Rather we need to think about what each individual might do with that information and determine whether they need to know it. A press operator probably doesn't need to know the latest health issue of another employee, unless it directly effects his job. A friend doesn't need to know the most recent financial report details on Peczuh. A delivery driver doesn't need to know your great concerns about a recent change of policy. These are important matters, and as professionals, we need to communicate professionally and that means communicating responsibly.

The Four Building Blocks: PEOPLE

by Brenda Bailey-Hughes

The Four Building Blocks: PEOPLE text

Four building blocks create the foundation for successful communication, the people, the message, the context and effective listening. The four elements are at play in every communication event, whether you're presenting in front of 1000 people or making small talk with a coworker. When I'm coaching a client, I often ask what are some recent communication successes you've had? Frequently the client will say, "I don't know, "I don't really think about it, communication just happens." Well, research shows that strong communication is the cornerstone for thriving businesses, healthy relationships and your career success, don't leave all of that up to chance. Before communicating, consider each of these four building blocks. As you walk to your next meeting, think to yourself, who will be there? What do I need to know about them? What kind of listener do I want to be right now? Before you hit Send on your next email, ask yourself, how's the timing of this email? Is email appropriate or should I pop in for a quick chat? You're making communication choices all the time, be mindful about those choices. Let's begin by exploring the people building block, whether you're the sender or the receiver of a message, it's important to think about the other person's perspective, for example, Tatiana and I need to edit some writing we've done, I send her an email saying, hey, you edit the odd chapters, I'll do the even ones, let's finish by the end of the next week. Simple enough, right? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Well, if I don't manage perceptions, the whole project and our relationship could blow up, I intended for this message to Tatiana to be helpful, to get things going, but the message might sound bossy or overbearing, who am I to tell her which chapters she has to edit? My intent may have been helpful, but what was the actual impact? When deciding what and how to communicate with another person, consider the Think, Feel, Do model, what do I want Tatiana to think? Time to start editing. What do I want her to feel? Respected, treated fairly and what do I want her to do? Get started. Now that I've thought of how I want her to feel, I might adjust my original wording from, you do the odd chapters, I'll do the even to something softer like, to get the ball rolling, I suggest you edit the odd chapters, I'll do the even, but if you have something else in mind, please let me know right away. Communication gets tricky, because all people have mental filters, certain levels of knowledge, personal concerns or preconceived notions, that affect the way we interpret messages. If I'm leaving for a business trip tomorrow, when I ask Tatiana to let me know right away, right away to me means now, she on the other hand has just started her vacation, her kids are on break, right away to her means a few hours or even days. Those mental filters dictate how we decode or understand a message. Think of a conversation you have coming up soon, what assumptions might your conversational partner have about you or the topic? What do you want the other person to think, to feel, to do? Let your answers inform the words, the tone and the body language you use during the conversation. If you want to be a great communicator, begin with the people building block, do your best to understand a message from the other's perspective.

"Four building blocks create the foundation for successful communication, the people, the message, the context and effective listening."

"When deciding what and how to communicate with another person, consider the Think, Feel, Do model..."

"What do you want the other person to think, to feel, to do?"

The Four Building Blocks: MESSAGE

by Tatiana Kolovou

The Four Building Blocks: MESSAGE text

What gets transmitted between a sender and a receiver, hopefully with positive intent as Brenda mentioned is the message. The message in a conversation is more than the words that we speak or write. It's the non-verbal signals we deliver, and the tone of voice we use. If you give your best effort in a presentation, and I approach you at the end saying, "Good job today." The words in my message will be completely overridden by my unenthusiastic delivery. As the sender, when you contemplate your message, keep in mind not only how you word or you write something, but also the channel that you use to send it. A channel may be a text, an email, a phone call, a face-to-face conversation, a memo, an interoffice chat or a voice message. If I know I have to get my boss's attention, I may send a quick text and ask if it's appropriate to call her for a conversation. Because of the amount of emails she receives daily, I know that if we have to make a swift decision this channel is more productive for both of us. Now speaking of email, I was frightened, but not surprised to see the Radicati Group's findings. In 2015, the technology market research firm published a report stating that the number of emails sent and received around the world topped 205 billion per day. This number will increase steadily by 3% per year. This means that by 2019, we will send and receive 246 billion emails worldwide daily. I mention all kinds of channels earlier, but this report tells me that email tends to be the preferred mode of transportation in the workplace worldwide. Whatever channel you utilize, you may also need to consider the message's organizational pattern. Is your message meant to inform? In that case, you will focus on the need for your receiver to understand. This is done by designing your message in a simple, concise way that's tailored for your receiver. But does your message aim to persuade? If that is your intent, you will need to use the same concise audience focus strategy as you would to inform. But to persuade someone, you must also craft an argument with your main claims, evidence and reasoning for your idea. If you intend to persuade, you may approach your message by presenting the problem followed by the solution. If the audience has two choices, you may organize your message by comparing and contrasting the two. Regardless of the nature of your organizational pattern, your message is more effective when you bundle primary and secondary information. Don't just give the information, follow it up with some kind of supporting evidence or example that can make it memorable, or at least understandable. For example, if I'm announcing a promotion that our company plans to begin in the upcoming month, I should tell our staff why we're making this decision or what yield of return we saw last time we tried something similar. If you consider the message going from the sender to the receiver in a cyclical pattern, then the check for message effectiveness is receiving the listener's feedback. As the sender, allow time for your receiver to absorb the information, and either ask questions or get clarification. If you skip this critical phase of checking for understanding, you will run the risk of miscommunication, and the perception that you don't value the receiver's involvement in the whole communication process. The product of your communication loop is your message. Be thoughtful with how you strategize, deliver, and evaluate it, and you will be an effective communicator with every interaction.

"The message in a conversation is more than the words that we speak or write. It's the non-verbal signals we deliver, and the tone of voice we use."

" As the sender, when you contemplate your message, keep in mind not only how you word or you write something, but also the channel that you use to send it."

"The product of your communication loop is your message."

The Four Building Blocks: CONTEXT

by Brenda Bailey-Hughes

The Four Building Blocks: CONTEXT text

Communication never happens in a vacuum. Location, timing, and relationships are all part of our third communication building block, the context. In real estate you hear the mantra location, location, location. And it matters for communication too. You've probably felt how different the dynamic is when your team works together in the standard old conference room versus a time when you worked at some fun offsite location. One of our clients, Julia, had to deliver some bad news about a benefits cut to a number of different business units. She made good location choices. She decided to deliver this news in person, even though that meant a lot of travel for her. And she made sure that each meeting would be held in a quiet conference room to avoid distractions. What she didn't factor in were timing and relationships. By the time she reached her fourth or fifth site visit, the news had already spread, and people were a step ahead of her. One team leader had a long positive relationship with the senior leadership team. He trusted that their decision was in the best interest of the company and had already briefed his team on the changes. They pretty much made peace with the new benefits plan. Julia showed up assuming this group would be as resistant as the others. She failed to take the emotional temperature in the room, and began her rehearsed presentation. By the end of her poorly timed talk she had actually taken this receptive audience and made them feel resistant to the idea. The team leader was not happy with her. Think back to a time someone tried sharing with you at a bad time or location. I hate it when my mom calls just to chat and I'm in the midst of rush hour traffic trying to get a meeting on time. Bad timing, bad location makes for a horrible listener. Always be sure to tune in to the context, timing, location, and relationship, and see how effective you become.

"Location, timing, and relationships are all part of our third communication building block, the context."

"Bad timing, bad location makes for a horrible listener."

Communicating credibility

by Tatiana Kolovou

Communicating credibility text

- Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where projecting the utmost credibility is essential to our success. Maybe you're in front of a group of people who are skeptical of your abilities or knowledge. Maybe you're the only woman or minority at the table. Maybe you've been given that rare opportunity to present to the higher ups, and you want to make a great impression. Whatever the reason, there are a ton of ways you can enhance your credibility. Obviously you'll need to be an absolute expert on your subject matter, but also consider things like how you dress, your posture, avoiding those pesky, ums and uhs. Let me tell you about one often overlooked way to build your credibility. Use declarative statements rather than questions. Now I can just hear you saying, oh no, not a high school grammar lesson, but stay with me here. A declarative statement is simply a sentence that announces the way something is. It provides information, whereas a question, of course, is where we seek information. While it's subtle, people who provide information make an impression of being more credible than those who seek information. Imagine saying to that group of managers who you really want to impress, "would you like to hear more about my proposal?", versus "let me tell you more about this proposal.", or there you are in front of that group of skeptics, which sounds more convincing, more credible? "Don't you think this plan will work well?" or "This plan will work.". When I first learned about this technique, we were having some troubles with the water heater in our house, it was old, and I had to decide if it was worth repairing, or should just be replaced. So when the repair person showed up at the house, I started to ask, "would you please give me an estimate for repair before you begin any work?", but then I thought, nope, if I ask him for an estimate, there's a 50/50 chance he'll say no. He could give me some song and dance about how he won't be able to tell anything until he tears into it, and so on. I need to be taken seriously here, so, switch up the question, "would you please give me an estimate before you do any work?" into a statement. Can you do it? How would you tell rather than ask for what you need? Did you say something like, "I will need you to give me an estimate before you do any work." That's what I said in real life, and it worked. Now, think about an upcoming situation where you need to project a ton of credibility. Go through what you might say in your mind, are there any questions that you could change into statements? Or perhaps I should say, find those questions, and change them into statements. Good luck.

"Listening is the skill that separates good communicators from amazing ones."

"To be a good listener, use reaffirming nonverbals to show that you're listening."

"...listening is about connecting to the other person with your heart. This is a higher level of listening and goes beyond surface level conversation."

The Four Building Blocks: LISTENING

by Tatiana Kolovou

The Four Building Blocks: LISTENING text

The building blocks of people, message, and context seem simple enough when you apply them to daily life. But there is one final component of stellar communication that must be considered. That building block is listening, an activity that takes up to 55% of our working time according to the US Department of Labor. Between interacting at work, talking to our families, taking in information through radio, TV, video clips, we listen more than we speak daily. Most of us come into the workplace with little to no training on listening. Across the globe, schools prepare us to write, read, and speak, but few of us have had extensive training in listening. Listening is the skill that separates good communicators from amazing ones. And you guessed it, we want you to be an amazing communicator, so here are some tips to being a strong listener. When you are the center of a message, and you're getting feedback from your receiver, you have to listen with your ears, your eyes, your heart. What do I mean by that? Let's refer back to the example Brenda mentioned in her overview of the people building block, in which we're deciding who will edit each chapter of some writing Brenda and I had done. As she asks me to start editing the work we do, Brenda may use her ears to pay close attention to my words, my tone of voice, or even my pacing. Am I asking several clarifying questions? Sounding annoyed at the timeline? Responding with more options? Is there a phrase that I'm repeating more than others? To be a good listener, use reaffirming nonverbals to show that you're listening. Feel free to summarize what you hear, or simply give some interjections of agreement, uh-huh, hmm. These indicate that you are following along. If our conversation about the editing deadline occurs in a face-to-face setting, Brenda will have a chance to listen with her eyes. She will pay close attention to my eye contact or facial expressions. In turn, she will try to moderate hers to match my reaction. Listening with your eyes allows you to be attuned to nonverbal communication. Even when you communicate with words and symbols, there's a lot to pay attention to. And yes, I'm referring to exclamation marks, all caps, and our beloved emojis. Finally, listening is about connecting to the other person with your heart. This is a higher level of listening and goes beyond surface level conversation. Empathetic listening is about putting yourself in the other person's shoes. Seeing the world from their perspective. Listening with your heart takes more time, and attention, and is only used in specific situations. Let's say for example that when Brenda discusses our editing deadline with me through email, I start bringing up totally different project deadlines that conflict. Since Brenda's a good communicator, she will instantly recommend we get on a call so she can assess the situation. She would ask me what else is on my plate and paraphrase what she hears. She would ask me clarifying questions to better understand my perspective. It will definitely take more time for Brenda to listen with her heart, but in the long run, it will make our communication more effective and build more trust in our relationship. Intentional listening happens on many levels and it's a critical part of the communication puzzle. Brenda and I have a whole course in this library on effective listening skills if you want to explore the topic further. Now that you know the four building blocks of an effective communication process, let's put it into action in some actual work situations.

"Listening is the skill that separates good communicators from amazing ones."

"To be a good listener, use reaffirming nonverbals to show that you're listening."

"...listening is about connecting to the other person with your heart. This is a higher level of listening and goes beyond surface level conversation."